C. Displaying Survey Results

After you conduct an attitudinal assessment, you need to examine
the results, and, if appropriate, make changes in your classroom
management, instruction, or interactions. In other words, if you
are not going to act upon the results, then don't conduct the survey.

There are many ways that survey data can be displayed and/or reported.
The most common approach is to compile the responses and create
charts or graphs that can quickly convey the information.

For example, the University of Texas administered Attitude Toward
Science Class surveys to over 400 students in 6th, 7th, and 8th
grade. Looking strictly at the averages (means), it's difficult
to get a picture of whether the attitudes were improving or not.

For example, look at #23: "Science is one of my favorite
classes."

Question

Sixth
Grade

Seventh
Grade

Eighth
Grade

Pretest Mean

Posttest Mean

Pretest Mean

Posttest Mean

Pretest Mean

Posttest Mean

23. Science is one of my favorite classes.

3.3

2.7

3.6

3.8

3.1

3.0

By displaying the same data in bar charts as illustrated below,
it is much easier to see that the attitude of the 7th grades improved
over the year, while the 6th and 8th grades became more negative.